Lonestar Lagniappe

It's that time again...time for another quick bump update!  As of today, I am 21 weeks and 4 days.  Holy Moly.  I can't believe I am already 1/2 way through this...awesome!  (BTW, I hope to be posting a reno update on the guest bedroom and a nursery inspiration update this week...we will see if that actually happens ;)) Speaking of the guest room, it flooded in the great Memorial Day Flood of 2015 and we were forced to order new carpet.  That means we had to completely disassemble the guest room and put all the furniture somewhere while we were waiting for carpet.  Most of the stuff went into what will be the nursery for storage, so we have been delayed in thinking about what we want the nursery to look like for about a month.  Now that we have the carpet in and the room put back together, we are starting to work on the nursery.  What a chore.  I am usually so decisive and know exactly what I want.  Not so here...and it's frustrating....

Eeek !  The news is finally out!  I am pregnant and we are expecting our little bouncing bundle in November 2015.  It feels like it took a lifetime to get here, but that's a blog post for a different time... For now, you will have to settle for my 'weekly bump' pics.  I don't intent to take a picture every week, and honestly, I'm still waiting for there to be a cute bump and not just a bloat that looks like I ate a few too many hamburgers ( but let's be honest, that's probably true! ).  I also don't intend to give too much information about my symptoms or pregnancy.  I have read far too many blogs with TMI and I don't want to be that girl.  Let's keep it classy, shall we?   Mmmkay, thanks .  ;) Here are a few pics for the time being!  I will be 14 weeks tomorrow and seem to be feeling better daily.  Bring on trimester two. So, there you have it!  Please keep us in your prayers as we prepar...

Hi all!  I want to share with you my latest DIY project - a piece of "artwork" ( if you will ) to hang over our office space in our 3rd bedroom. I love to decorate.  Like, love  to decorate.  I also love to craft.  These 2 hobbies came in to play during this project, and I could not be happier with the results.   When you are renovating on a budget sometimes you can't have that cool piece of art that you want, or you have to settle for the lamp from Marshall's and not the designer lamp you love.  That's ok!  (I happen to really love Marshall's and Homegoods!)  You just have to know what style you're going for and the rest is simple.  What I do is look for inspiration - whether that be on Pinterest, browsing online, or window shopping.  I am always on the look out for something to inspire me, something that I can say " Hey - I can do that...maybe better! "  Hence this project.  I was browsing through WorldMarket a few m...

Happy 2015!  I hope your holidays were joyful, laughter-full, and restful.  We spent Thanksgiving with W's family and Christmas with my family.  We had a great holiday season, but seemingly did not take many pictures.  Here is a pic of us after Christmas Eve service at church.    Merry Christmas!   As we continue to re-do our house, I thought it would be time to update you on our progress, highlighting the master bedroom ceiling! Our house was built in the 1970's and the ceiling textures definitely reflect that time.  Not to mention the previous owner had everything painted the same awful yellowish-white.  I'm talking ceiling, walls, trim, doors...you name it, it was yellowish-white.  We wanted to do something cool to our master ceiling because it is vaulted.  We searched Pinterest, Houzz, magazines, and our own brains and came up with an idea to do a tongue and groove type ceiling treatment.   After a good deal of ...

Good evening, all! We have slowed down over here on the renovations, so there's nothing huge to debut, but I wanted to share my DIY headboard!  I am so happy with the way it came out, and it was relatively easy. Since we have been married, with the exception of the first year, we have not had a headboard.  I have always used throw pillows to dress it up and hung something on the wall ( and W hates pillows!) .   In fact, he usually quotes this scene when I ask him to help me make/unmake the bed: I still love my pillows :)  Anyway, I brainstormed and watched how-to videos on you tube for a few weeks before committing to the shape I wanted, then I ordered my fabric ( from Joann's ) and got started.  Here is what went down ( I forgot to take pictures after some steps, so I will do my best to describe each step ).  Most are iPhone photos, so forgive the quality.  W was very involved and helped in every step - so you will see a lot of "we"...

Good Morning!  I am excited to start a new 'series' - if you will - on the blog.  The new series of posts will show off our house renovation.  You'll get to see the product of all of our hard work! :)  Hopefully, you'll love it as much as we do.   Let's backup for just a second.  W and I had a hard time buying our first home ( Well, I had a hard time! )  The market was so 'hot' that every time we saw a house we liked, it had been bought by the time we tried to schedule a showing.  No joke.  Houses were selling within hours of being on the market and for way over asking price.  We knew we wanted to fix up our house, really put our hard work into it, and create some sweat equity.  Our initial strategy was to buy a that was 70% or so finished only leaving us a few projects.  Once we saw the demand for housing and lost a few houses we really liked to a higher bidder, we lowered our standards ( haha! ), and found our lovely ho...